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Demetrios I Komnenos "Megas"
Demetrios I Komnenos (1068-1135), known as "Megas" ("the Great"), Prince of Kappadokia from 1084-1090, Basilieus ton Romanion from 1090-1135. Progenitor of the Komnenoi imperial dynasty, and widely considered the founder of the Fifth Empire. 'Early Life' (1068-1084) 'Succeeding Alexios Komnenos (1084-7)' After Alexios’s death, Demetrois was quickly married to Anastasia Diasrenios, who also replaced his mother as logothethes tou dromon. While he had met Anastasia only a week before (the marriage was hurried in the hope Alexios might live to see it), it is said the couple quickly hit off and by the time the newly-weds finished their voyage from Antiock to the famed Queen of Cities Anastasia was already known to be with child. Demetrois was a powerful lord, his total domain including vassals encompassing almost twelve percent of the empire and ten thousand men, no small number in Romanion. It was believed by many he would make a better ruler than the current Basilieus, Michael VII, infamous for his stutter and the lavish lifestyle which was bankrupting the empire. A faction had already started to grow amongst the dynatoi, led by Ioannes Prince of Samos and Demetrois’s uncle Manuel, Prince of Simope, which wished to depose Michael, while Cilicia and the Metropolitanate of Armenia had already broken free. However, Basilieus Michael was firmly in favour of forming a Dukid dynasty, and Alexios had been made Kaisar only because Michael was childless and the Komnenoi were so popular with the people. Therefore, when the young Prince arrived in the chamber of the Basilieus, the lord chamberlain announced that while Michael had deigned to grant him the hereditary Kappadokian princely title passed down by his father (a mere formality normally, but the Basilieus was under no obligation to grant a father’s title to his son) but the title of Kaisar would be granted to his Eudoxious, a mere babe at the breast. Demetrois famously stood his ground while the chamberlain began to call for a new lord to appear before the throne. Michael then stood up, threw off the veil that hid his deformed body and stuttered his way through a dismissal. A lord then snickered, infuriating the Basilieus, who ordered the guards to arrest the entire court. Fortunately, his brother Androinkos, Prince of Thrace, intervened and court was dismissed. After that, the Basilieus began to shun from Demetriois as much as possible without being impolitic – while Ioannes and Manuel increased their invitations. The young lord was also highly taxed by Anastasia’s ill-fated pregnancy, which she survived but her baby did not. Growing sick of the hostile atmosphere inside the capital, Demetrois left Konstantinopolis and took the overland route back to Antioch while a recovering Anastasia went via the sea. This separation, while temporary, would have far-reaching consequences in the future. Nevertheless, at the time, it seemed innocuous. What was of clear importance to Demetrois however, was that in the gap between the arrival of Demetrois (who had been touring his vassals lands) and the rest of the court’s arrival, was the discovery that his mother Zoe’s maidservant, Anna Iolianos had been in the pay of a man named Eudoxios Paliologos, who had told her to add hemlock to Alexios’s daily wine, which sped his passing. Who Eudoxios was paid by was a matter of debate, but it was believed by many, not least Anastasia, that this was the Emperor’s doing. However, an older Anastasia, Demetrois’s logothethes tou oiekaikon, disputed this, believing the Basilieus was too mad for such a plot, but did not believe Zoe’s explanation either, that the Great Turk was behind the plot. Nonetheless, this was the point where Demetrois forever turned his back on Michael Dukas. While his father had spoken of the Basilieus as a childhood friend, a man to trust, and this at first had had bearing of the younger Komnenos’s original thinking, he now began to openly plot to remove Michael forcibly from the Throne of Ceasers. 'Tripoli Campaign (1087)' The tripoli campaign was a military campaign that would see Demetrious gain his first military victories as well as establishing Kommenoi power. On orders of the Prince ,Zoe sent increasingly insulting letters to the emir of tripoli begining from small strips of land to outright demands for unrestricted passage of Christan Pilgrims as well as a conversion to the Orthodox faith. The young Emir rashly pursued war giving Demetrios cause to fight.Given his Domestikos ineptness It would on demetrios to craft the plan. Demetrios plan was simple but elegant. He would divide his army into three diffrent army following his father's advice on the Sacerans. 'Gaining the Imperial Crown (1086-1090)' 'Initial Campaigns and Reforms (1090-1102)' 'The First Seljuk War (1102-1106) ' 'Interbellum (1106-1109)' 'The Cuman War (1109-1110)' '''Late Reign with Nikolaios (1110-/11''31) Upon the advice of his Co-Emperoer and son Nikolaios Kommenos, He issued a call to all the great princes of the Rus for a signifcant undertaking. The unification of the Rus under one man. Demetrios had agreed to allow the many Princes of the Rus to join the emipre only to give them a new master of the Aleskander Prince of Novogrod the new Korol of the Rus. With this he would later be rembered as the Peacemaker of the Rus. In this time frame he continued to give more and more of his responsibilites of governace to Nikolas to manage. Also in this time is that he again married,this time to a woman of the capet family,Berthe capet who later give birth to Manuel Kommenos one of the most feared Kommenoi ever.AlekAleksandr, Prince of NovgorodAleksandr, Prince of Novgorodsandr, Prince of Novgorod 'The Second Seljuk War (1132-1133)' 'Final Years and Death (1134-1135)' 'After Death' Glorification and the Cult of St. Demetrios Significance Personal Life